The present invention relates to optical apparatus, and in particular optical component test apparatus and a method of testing optical components.
In the television industry in particular, there has arisen a need to test the lenses in television cameras periodically. The requirement arises since errors in the transmitted picture from a television camera might be caused by errors in the lenses in the particular camera or by other errors within the camera. Furthermore, television camera lenses are often subjected to severe conditions and scratches, gouges and other faults may develop in the lenses.
The present invention provides apparatus and method for testing such television camera lenses although, of course, it is not restricted to that use. For example, the apparatus might be used to test lenses in movie cameras and indeed, other suitable lenses and, even, with suitable modification of the apparatus, other optical components such as optical mirrors.
Throughout the Specification we shall refer to the use of light but it will be understood that the apparatus, with suitable modifications, might equally be used in non-optical wavelengths, such as ultraviolet and infrared and the principles might be used for testing optical components operating at these other wavelengths.